INFRASTRUCTURE PACKAGE Governor Schwarzenegger continues to lead negotiations with legislative leaders towards the goal of putting a massive infrastrucuture bond proposal on the June ballot — it isn’t clear if today is actually the last day to get something worked out — the ‘last day’ keeps sliding, it was last Friday. Based on my math, I think a deal could be worked out as late as Friday, but that would create a real time-crunch. I was with Senator Tom McClintock for a few minutes yesterday, and he was recalling that with Props. 57 & 58, they had like less than 72 hours to put together and turn in the ballot arguments they submitted. The primary sticking point in negotiations is stemming from the fact that legislative Democrats insist on loading up this bond package with billions of dollars in non-infrastructure spending, and are solidly opposed to spending reforms. From my perspective, the most movement has come from legislative Republicans who, frankly, have good reason to be skeptical and opposed to a massive borrowing… Read More

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced the appointments of James A. Boscoe to a judgeship in the Tuolumne County Superior Court and Jose L. Alva and Ronald A. Northup to judgeships in the San Joaquin County Superior Court.

JAMES BOSCOE Boscoe, 64, of Sonora, has served as superior court commissioner for the Tuolumne County Superior Court since 1997. He previously was an attorney in private practice specializing in family and personal injury law from 1995 to 1997. Boscoe also served as deputy district attorney for Tuolumne, Calaveras and Amador counties from 1990 to 1995. He earned a Juris Doctorate degree from Santa Clara School of Law and Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley. He fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge William Polley.

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The race for Los Angeles County Assessor will feature the incumbent assessor Rick Auerbach. Rick has to be the favorite for winning but a Deputy County Assessor is challenging him for a third time. A Democrat. A Democrat with the legal nameJohn Lower Taxes Loew. Obviously, I’m sympathetic to a guy willing to go that far to express his views. But why is he Democrat?

Maybe every candidate should do this. Tom Cut The Car Tax McClintock, Arnold Build It With Bonds Schwarzenegger, Elton Don’t Know Squat About Filing For Congress Gallegly, Randy On The Take Cunningham. Mike I Spell Poorly Spence. The list can go on and on. It would give us some insight into the kinds of people we are voting for.… Read More

Well, I am at the airport in Sacramento, ready to head out. I ended up leaving the Capitol a little later than I had planned so that I could make a quick stop-by to visit FR friend Adam Mendelsohn, the Governor’s Communications Director. I’d last been in the spacial CD digs in the ‘Horseshoe’ (the Governor’s Executive Offices are called that because they are, in fact, shaped like a horseshoe!). Anyways, it was a busy couple of days in the Capitol – with lots of meetings, where I was diligently working to make and maintain all of those contacts that help me to stay ‘plugged in’ to the latest news. We’ll be writing more about it, but it was certainly a strange time to be in the Capitol. The dominant issue going on were the negotiations on the Governor’s Strategic Infrastructure Bond Plan. We’ve been talking a lot about that plan on this site. So what is the latest? Well, I was actually saying hello to Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman around 2pm when he headed into a round of negotiations, which apparently ended… Read More

Last Friday in the mid-afternoon, things went a little crazy as I received a call from a close source letting me know that 10-term Republican Congressman Elton Gallegly (pictured to the left) was retiring. Of course this is big news because Members of Congress tend to serve for a long time, and since almost all are in non-competitive districts, they serve as long as they want. One of them retiring is big news, but we actually have two, with Congressman Bill Thomas of Bakersfield also leaving at the end of this year. However, it would be unfair to compare the retirement of Gallegly with that of Thomas. While I am no fan of Thomas, he is retiring the right way, and Gallegly… Well, here is the tale as best as I’ve been able to reconstruct it by talking to various sources and contacts…

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Your FlashReport “cub reporter” is actually at the State Capitol today. I was going to search out someone that could give me an update on how the ‘Big 5’ negotiations are going on the BIG BOND$ Infrastructure Plan. Well, just now I stepped off of the elevator on the first floor of the Capitol, and found lead Assembly Republican negotiator on this package, Rick Keene.

To make a long story short, Keene was telling about 15 reporters that, despite good faith efforts by Governor Schwarzenegger, the Democrats continue to want to load up the package “like a Christmas tree loaded with ornaments” – Keene said that Republicans are still very interested in helping a common-sense infrastructure plan come forward, but that right now there is no agreement.

We’ll see how it goes – but I am proud of Keene and our GOP legislators for holding a firm line for fiscal sanity!… Read More

San Bernardino County will once again see an array of hard-fought contests on the primary ballot in both parties, as well as for a non-partisan county post. The non-partisan post of which I speak is the race for county assessor. We previously reported on these pages incumbent Assessor Don Williamson’s intention to retire in the wake of Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Postmus’ (picturedleft)announcement for the post. However, at the close of filing Friday, the situation changed as the incumbent Williamson filed for reelection. In this race,Williamson (who has almost no money) has serious problems. (Full disclosure: I’m Postmus’ chief of staff.) San Bernardino County taxpayers had to pay $65,000 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit brought against him by a county employee who repeatedly had to rebuff Williamson’s advances. The San Bernardino County Sun newspaper once said Williamson "long ago carried politics to a new level of buffoonery," and that… Read More

The San Gabriel Valley Tribune (Pasadena Star-News and Whittier Daily News) carries an editorial about the replacement of Kern and Los Angeles County Congressman Bill Thomas as House Ways And Means Chairman. The Thomas Retirement gives House Republicans an opportunityto get away from the earmark and big spending philosophy. The editorial is here.… Read More